Ribbons Unraveling
by Mintacia
Summary: Feelings were waking up within him. It was like a fire had been set in his chest, spreading warmth and desire to the rest of his body. He knew what he was doing was irrational and inappropriate, but he couldn't help it. / NejiTen /


**Ribbons Unraveling**

\- **x** \- **x** \- **x** -

"... completely uncalled for, erratic, and stupid too," said the girl as she tied the ends of the bandage, pulling it into a knot with sharp, fluid movements. The boy winced. "If you had waited a minute, no, even two seconds, this wouldn't have happened." When the boy didn't respond, the girl went on. "It's called team work. It's not a half bad theory, you know. Seriously, next time you pull something like this..." She didn't finish. Pulling his sleeve back over his arm, she sighed.

There was a silence. Well, as close to a silence as the two teenagers were going to get. Outside the cave, their overly energetic partner and their leader were energetically chopping firewood, yelling encouragement at each other as they did so.

"Do you get what I'm saying?" the girl asked, her hands going to her hips. The roll of bandage was still clutched in her right hand. With a sigh, the boy reluctantly turned to look at her.

"I do, Tenten," He told her somberly.

Tenten sighed. "You really are something, Neji," she said. With that, she began to pack up. Neji watched her, not offering any help. There wasn't a lot to put away. She worked quietly, head bent over, eyes fixed on her work.

His white eyes missed nothing. One of her buns was lower then the other. During the fight, the ribbon holding it in place had probably loosened, causing the bun to shift out of place.

It bugged him. He wasn't often obsessive-compulsive about random things, but her hair caught and held his attention. He tried to focus on the things she was packing up; she'd used a wide variety of creams and sprays, all provided by Sakura, and was working on fitting them all into the small first aid kit (on a side note, he personally thought all the different medicines were over kill).

It was in vain. Once again, her hair caught his attention and he scowled. It needed to be fixed. If he pointed it out though, she'd probably just laugh at him. No, rather, Neji would need to take matters into his own hands.

Tenten froze as he slipped his fingers into nook of one of her buns, fishing for the end of the ribbon.

"Eh, Neji, what -" she began to yelp as she twisted away from him. Her twisting away did the trick; the tie slipped out of her hair, hanging limply from his hand. Half her hair cascaded down, framing the right side of her face.

It wasn't the first time the boy had seen her with her hair down. Still, he couldn't help but enjoy how long and curvy her brown hair was. It was stunning. Unfortunately, he rarely got to see it. Tenten always insisted on keeping it up, for some reason.

" _Hey,_ " she growled, blushing. She wasn't used to having her hair down. Neji wasn't apologetic, though. In fact, he decided to make a grab for the other hair ribbon. Moving swiftly in a way that only a trained ninja could, he closed the space between them and wrapped his arm around her. Tenten yelped as Neji accidentally knocked them both over and onto the ground.

Before she could manage to shove him off her, he slipped his fingers into her other bun and plucked the ribbon out. "Better," he whispered, admiring how the brown hair haloed out around Tenten.

Rolling her eyes, Tenten smacked on his chest. "Alright, get off," she commanded. Neji obediently got off her, standing up. Tenten was quick to follow, brushing dust off her pants.

When she held out her hand for the ribbons, he couldn't help but smile a little in a devious manner. This was a game, and he was enjoying it. Neji held the red ribbons up high, out of her reach. He drank in her features, enjoying how her thin eye brows arched down and how the edges of her lips twitched, as if she was trying to hold back a smile. Never would he admit it, but he loved to tease her.

"Neji," she said threateningly, trying to fix him with her best glare.

The corners of his eyes creased in amusement. Before Tenten could ask what he was planning, Neji bundled up the ribbons tightly between his fingers and tucked them deep into his shirt's pocket. _Mine,_ his expression said as he met Tenten's glare evenly.

"Jerk," she said, pouting, "what do you think you're doing?"

"They were uneven," he responded calmly, shrugging, "your buns. I was doing you a favor." He was enjoying himself.

"Uh huh, listen," huffed Tenten, "give back my ribbons, or I will make you regret it." Her soft voice had dropped an octave. For some reason, it sent shivers up Neji's back.

Then, she took a step towards him. Now, there was barely any space between them. One her hands came up threateningly, poking the pocket with the ribbons. It hardly phased Neji. In response, he gently grabbed her hand and pushed it to the side as he took a small step forward, removing what little space remained between them.

Their bodies brushed together with every breath.

Gaping like a fish out of water, Tenten went to take a step back, caught off guard by the sudden closeness. Only, before she could move, Neji wrapped his other arm around her waste. He really wasn't sure what he was doing. Honestly, his mind was on autopilot. He liked this game they were playing. He liked how close they were and how he was touching her.

His heart was hammering in his chest.

"Neji, what are you doing?"

It took him a moment to break free of the weird enchantment he'd found himself in. "... keeping you from getting the ribbons back," he whispered to her.

Some emotion flashed across Tenten's face, too quick for him to register. However, her cheeks undeniably reddened.

However, no matter what, he had just issued a challenge to her. Tenten couldn't resist a could challenge. None of their team could. Neji knew exactly that. "We can do this the easy way, or the hard way," she whispered back to him.

"The hard way," he replied huskily.

Tenten really needed to face the fact that Neji was a better wrestler than her. Battling from afar was her strong suit. Meanwhile, Neji was thoroughly trained in close quarters combat. It was no surprise that, after Tenten tackled him at the waist, sending them both to the ground, their following scuffle was short.

"I win," Neji breathed heavily. From below him, Tenten glared at him, her hands pinned above her by one of his. He was straddling her, his legs positioned over hers so that she couldn't kick him.

"You suck," the girl spat, before sighing in defeat. Neji chuckled.

"Says the loser."

Her beautiful brown hair was once again spread around her. Slowly, curiously, he ran his fingers through it. Tenten tensed slightly, the red in her cheeks still present. Licking his lips, Neji's white eyes stared unabashedly at the girl. She attempted to avert her eyes, turning her head to the side, but he wouldn't have that. His free hand left her hair and migrated to her chin, gently pushing it so that her nervous eyes were locked with his.

Her eyes were gorgeous. Chocolaty brown, almost dull in color around the edges, but brighter around her pupils. He liked that he could his reflection in her eyes. Maybe it was a Hyuuga thing, but he found pupils quite intriguing. They were something he could never have, something absolutely normal to everyone else... he rubbed her soft cheek with his thumb mindlessly as he considered this.

Feelings were waking up within him. It was like a fire had been set in his chest, spreading warmth and desire to the rest of his body. He knew what he was doing was irrational and inappropriate, but he couldn't help it.

"Neji...?" the girl whispered, watching him.

Then she licked her lips.

Neji lost all sense of reason. A primal instinct took over and he leaned down, closed his eyes, and pressed his lips into hers.

He didn't need to pin her hands down any more. She melted into him. The two teenagers wrapped together, hands digging into hair and wrapping around necks. Their lips mashed together, exchanging hot gasps of air.

"We did good, Guy-sensei!" A sudden outburst at the entrance of the cave interrupted Neji and Tenten's newfound heaven. Barely one second after the outburst, the two of them were several feet away.

"Yes we did, Lee!"

At the entrance of the cave, Guy and Lee were stumbling in, each carrying more fire word then they themselves weighed. Thankfully, that meant that their view was completely blocked. Both Neji and Tenten sighed in relief.

Guy dropped his firewood and looked over at Tenten and Neji. "Tenten, I see you have decided to let your hair down!" he commented, "It's a very youthful decision!"

Shyly running her fingers through her hair, Tenten replied, "Um, thanks."

"Guy-sensei, are you sure we have enough?" Lee practically yelped after he'd dumped his collection of logs onto the middle of the floor.

In an attempt to hide her embarrassment, Tenten quickly turned her attention back to first aid kit. At some point, either in their wrestling or their kissing, she and Neji had knocked over the first aid kid. Half of the medical supplies had spilled out.

As she tucked the medicines back into the kit, Guy responded to Lee, "Hmm, you might be right!"

Meanwhile, Neji let out a deep sigh and closed his eyes, trying to mentally block Guy and Lee. Although it was illogical, he was rather furious at them. If it hadn't been for them, Tenten would still be underneath him, her hands digging into his hair.

Guy dropped his own logs and admired the huge pile of firewood.

"If you guys keep this up, there won't be a forest soon," Tenten complained, kicking a few of the logs away from her.

"Tenten, don't even bother," Neji grumbled, "Nothing gets through their bowl-cuts, must less through to their brains." This was meaner than he normally would be. Then again, his body was growling, demanding more of Tenten. It was hard to be polite when these new desires were tugging at his heart and mind.

"Oh yea, rival?" Lee shouted, puffing out his chest and glaring at Neji, "Well, I'm going to go chop a _thousand_ more logs of wood!"

"Excellent, Lee!" Guy cried out, pumping his fist into the air. "Prove yourself the strongest!"

"Yes uy-sensei!" The little spandex warrior turned on heel and dashed out the cave. His mentor paused, and rubbed his chin.

"Hm. If he chops a thousand logs of wood, then... he will beat me!" Eyes popping open, Guy-sensei suddenly roared, "I shall chop _two thousand_ logs of wood!"

And so, the boy and girl found themselves alone again.

"I still want my ribbons back," the girl complained playfully.

The boy smirked, "Then come get them."

As it would be, the ribbons were rather quickly forgotten by the two teenagers. They were much too distracted by other matters. Namely, each other.

\- **x** \- **x** \- **x** -

 **A/N:** I hope you've enjoyed this sweet little Neji/Tenten one shot. :)  
I wrote the original version of this story (called "On the Nature of Fate") back in 2009.  
Then, here in 2018, I decided to shine up the grammar.  
Only, I ended up rewriting almost all of it!

By the way, I'm fully aware that Neji/Tenten is _far_ from canon.  
When I wrote this originally, it had been a possible pairing.  
Oh well.


End file.
